Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Early Islam and the Copts?

Anyone who reads the international news on various events around the globe will have noted that the Egyptian Copts, the indigenous population of Christians in Egypt, have had many problems with Islamists over the years, and especially recently, what with the church burnings and drive-by shootings. This is somewhat ironic, according to some, since -- it has often been claimed -- the Copts welcomed the Muslims as liberators from the rule of Byzantium. I have had my doubts about this claim but never had the opportunity of looking into the evidence. Until now, for I see that the German scholar Prof. Dr. Harald Suermann, of the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, Bonn University, has written an article, "Copts and the Islam of the Seventh Century," published in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 5 (1350-1500), which was published by Brill in 2013. Suermann looks into a number of texts and concludes with a paragraph showing the somewhat mixed views of Copts around and after the Arab conquest of Egypt:

Are some tentative conclusions about these attitudes possible? The History of the Patriarchs as well as the other texts show that relations between the Copts and their Muslim rulers were mainly good, and that the patriarchs were respected as holy men. On the other hand, the History of the Patriarchs also reports that the Copts were attacked under Patriarch Isaac (686-689): crosses were destroyed, and polemical statements against the doctrines of Incarnation and Trinity were written on the doors of churches. Furthermore, the Panegyric calls the Muslims 'oppressors'. This evidence suggests that the idea that the Copts received the Muslims as liberators is no longer tenable. (Suermann, "Copts and the Islam of the Seventh Century," page 109)

The reference to oppression comes from the Panegyric, as noted, and reads, "neither let us fast like the Saracens, oppressors who follow after prostitution and massacre" (Suermann, page 108). The term "Saracens" is what Arabs were called, and in addition to being "oppressors," they were said to seek out "prostitution" and to engage in "massacre." These latter two accusations might be mere hyperbolic polemics, but given that Islamists today have no qualms about committing massacres and taking captive women as sex slaves, we might be ready to read such texts as the Panegyric as more historically accurate than they have previously been read.

The destruction of crosses, mentioned in the History of the Patriarchs, is certainly credible . . .

About Me

I am a professor at Ewha Womans University, where I teach composition, research writing, and cultural issues, including the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history.
My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism.
I also work as one-half of a translating team with my wife, and our most significant translation is Yi Kwang-su's novel The Soil, which was funded by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.
I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested.
I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries.
Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."